[Sigia-l] History of "Information Architecture"

[Peter Merholz]

Please, dear God, just read this:
http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~l38613dw/readings/InfoArchitecture.html

One interesting point: At either the last IA summit, or the one before 
that, I asked Peter Morville about why he chose the term "information 
architecture" for describing the work he did, when Richard Saul Wurman 
had used it to define a somewhat different practice. Peter said that he 
and Lou, simply, though Wurman was wrong in his use, and they decided to 
  apply the term in a way they thought more appropriate.

(Peter - feel free to correct my understanding... )

--peter

Tony Brown wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Can someone educate me or show me a pointer on the history of the term
> "information architecture" and how it came into existence?
> 
> I remember being asked about the term by a dot.bust consulting agency back
> around 1999.  It is now a common phrase as we all know, but how did the name
> evolve and field evolve?  Are there schools that now offer a degree in
> Information Architecture?  The people that I'm talking to that refer to
> themselves as IA's seem to have a very mixed background.
> 
> I come into the discussion from a human factors and usability engineering
> perspective with 15 years of history in that area.  We were doing user
> interface design on DOS-based applications and Windows-based applications,
> but nobody called that "information architecture" and it was considered UI
> work.  If anyone can share some history on this topic I'd appreciate it.
> 
>             - Tony
> 
> Tel. 781-729-8055
> tony at softplex.com
> 
> ------------
> When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
> *Plain text, please; NO Attachments
> 
> Searchable list archive:   http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
> ________________________________________
> Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
> Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l
>